York Street carpark plunge: charges laid against driver

Police have laid charges against the driver whose car plunged off the fifth floor of a central Auckland car park following an investigation into the accident which critically injured his female companion.

The 30-year-old woman was in the car, with the man, 39, when it fell off the Newmarket Tournament car park, in York St, onto another car below - narrowly missing the two women inside.

Police confirmed the male driver, who was seriously injured, was due to appear in the Auckland District Court on January 19, charged with careless driving causing injury.

Meanwhile, Auckland Council has released the results of its subsequent safety audit into 26 of the central city car parks, including three managed by Auckland Transport.

Manager Building Control Ian McCormick said staff first assessed the scene of the York St accident and found the wheel stop at the park, from where the vehicle had fallen, was dislodged.

However, it wasn't possible to ascertain if this had been fixed to the floor when the accident happened, or if it was dislodged prior.

A number of other wheel stops at the Newmarket car park were also found to be loose, but it was equally uncertain if these were due to vehicles running into them, or if they had failed over time.

Despite a "minimal" number of loose barriers McCormick said "generally speaking" the audited car park buildings were safe.

A number of other maintenance issues had been identified but he said these were "very minor".

The most "notable" issue was the loose wheel stops. These tended to either be fixed with bolts or epoxied to the floor - with the latter most likely to have come loose.

Since March, McCormick said owners had been encouraged to ensure wheel stops were strongly fixed and the car-parking barriers were well-maintained.

"We have identified the wheel-stops and owners have gone through and addressed those and they've gone and checked other wheel-stops to make sure they were fixed to the ground.

"The three operators are inspecting their respective buildings to ensure compliance with the relevant standards that applied at the time and are also investigating the possibility of upgrading their buildings to the 2002 standards."

The latest building standard, in 2002, for car parks required a light barrier, with a wheel stop, at each park. Prior to this the last standard in 1992 stipulated a vehicle barrier was sufficient, in the absence of a wheel stop.

McCormick said there wasn't legislation to force building owners to upgrade their sites to the latest standard, but "discussions were being held" to see if they would consider it.

Future work would need to comply with current standards, not those at the time of construction.

He said Auckland Council was in the process of upgrading its car park buildings to the 2002 standards, but that all three inspected had been maintained to a "high standard" and didn't have any loose wheel stops.

McCormick didn't believe it was necessary to implement any changes to the regulations and car park standards following the audit.

He said accidents were more likely to occur from driver error.

"A lot of these vehicles, they have got a lot of force, if there is a significant operator error involved they will go through most things that are in their way.

"The level of risk of a motor vehicle on the road is so far greater than the risk of being in a car park facility - we really need to put these things into context."